NHL Thursday Preview: Minnesota Wild vs. Edmonton Oilers, Nashville Predators vs. Vancouver Canucks
Minnesota Wild vs. Edmonton Oilers (9:30 PM ET)
Edmonton has a bunch of young players looking to continue wowing the National Hockey League (NHL) especially when they play against Minnesota for the second time in order to set the record straight.
After Minnesota beat Edmonton, 2-1, in a shootout during their previous matchup on Thursday, October 13, the Oilers and Wild will be going at it again for the second time this season, but this time on Oilers home-ice on Thursday, October 20, 2011, at the
Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Coming out of a loss against Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota witnessed one thing which was that their team has the ability to intimidate the opponent and they hope on doing so against Edmonton come Thursday.
"If a team's going to come into our building, they should know that they're going to be playing against the Minnesota Wild and it should not be a lot of fun", coach Mike Yeo said. "I don't think that we made Pittsburgh feel that way in the first period".
The Oilers also lost their last matchup against Calgary on Tuesday, October 18, but now return home for the next four contests, giving them hope for a much better outcome.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Edmonton’s first overall pick of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft back in June was at first considered immature for the major league but has shown that he is their top shooter by having potted four goals in the past five games, including a wild
hat-trick against Vancouver.
Ryan Whitney returned for the Oilers against Calgary and is expected to continue playing along with Taylor Hall who had flu-like symptoms on Wednesday, but will be participating on Thursday. Sam Gagner is still out and is not expected to join the Edmonton
line-up for another few weeks.
Minnesota will be without defenseman, Mike Lundin and forward, Cody Almond, but the remaining line-up is healthy and ready-to-go.
Nashville Predators vs. Vancouver Canucks (10:00 PM ET)
Being a 2011 Stanley Cup finalist, the Vancouver Canucks have not showed any significant performance over their past six matchups, out which only two they have won, barley.
Vancouver is coming out of being shutout by New York Rangers, 4-0, which has certainly lowered the teams’ ranking overall even though they are playing with their top performers like Henrik and Daniel Sedin along with their American All-Star, Ryan Kesler,
who finally made a comeback after undergoing hip-surgery during the offseason.
Being a veteran goaltender, Roberto Luongo of Vancouver, must step up his performance and start making those key saves which have been hurting his team.
"They're not satisfied with my play, as well as I am not, so I guess they're entitled to that, that's totally fine, I understand that", Roberto Luongo said, about his performance in the past few matchups. "It's up to me to pick up my game and make some saves".
Pekka Rinne, Nashville’s veteran goaltender on the other hand, has been playing very well for the group and started of the season with two straight wins, but have not been able to counter ever since, now having lost three straight.
Nashville is missing forwards, Martin Erat and Mike Fisher along with Francis Bouillon, while Vancouver continues to observe Mason Raymond, Byron Bitz, Aaron Rome and Nolan Baumgartner, all which are not expected to be back any time soon.
The Canucks and Predators will face-off against each other at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Thursday.
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